


Working to a Wish with your own Will

by Jay_s_Atelier



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Writing Synthesis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27890269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jay_s_Atelier/pseuds/Jay_s_Atelier
Summary: There was a girl who had all the answers... and Cu, as soon as he remembers why is going to get them all from her. As well as possibly ask her to marry him.
Relationships: Cú Chulainn | Lancer/Tohsaka Rin, Gilgamesh | Archer/Kishinami Hakuno
Kudos: 8





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Big surprise, but I do not own any of the characters or anything in the Fate fandom. My status as a Master in FGO doesn't entitle me to anything. I do, however, own the plot bunny for what I just wrote. You can thank the characters for being voluntold to participate~

The world was a harsh one sometimes. It was a place where a person had the grab what they could, use what they could, and use their own smarts and cunning to make it to the next day. Let alone plan for the future. It was a place where the earth didn’t care if you survived, the change and motion of the world had to go on. Quite fair of the world to be like this to all whom live upon it.

Of course this didn’t mean that people can’t help one another and reach farther together.

That one starts off alone in the world.

There is always the chance of a family there to catch you as you move and navigate through the waters that is the world and society.

Truly one can be fortunate to have all the best, or unlucky to have all the worst.

…..well normally.

.

* * *

.

A man in your everyday jeans and a t-shirt could be seen running. Faster and faster as he turned corners and deftly avoided the obstacles in his path. Be they signs, garbage, or the occasional vehicle. His breath near even with an unfortunate haggard breath leaping in.

_‘I won’t let you!’_

****_THWOOOOM!_ ** **

(The line of cars and one motorcycle were slammed into the left side of the street. A mighty shove the only thing needed to bring about its destruction. Even more dauntingly, the push was only an accident.)

_‘I won’t let you!’_

(An odd roar echoed in frustration as the “prey” was contrary enough to get _more_ agile as the chase went on. As if the warming of their body was literally warming up to the challenge instead of wearing down from the creature eager to see him broken and devoured as an eventual demise.

Eventual as in _soon_.)

The mishmash of a city and a forest swiftly found itself into more destruction as the creature raged. Its prey leading it on a merry chase. The rest of the landscape shuddering and assuredly turning the land into a mixture of a junkyard and a wasteland. As if a literal stormed had raged in animal form.. Although animal was questionable. The closest thing said creature could resemble was a horse that bred with a crocodile that bred with a kraken.

‘I won’t let this kill me!’ Long blue hair whipped behind him as he refused to bow down to death. An unfortunate knowing that should he touch the being after him he would be devoured even if he were to fight back. His whole concentration looking for a weapon to reject that eventuality. An image of a crimson spear flashed behind his eyes and he dodged right after the glowing red color. The creature once more roaring in anger and making sure its opinion known on not giving up on winning out in the end.

Immediately after sprinting around the corner to what appeared to be a dock, he had to swerve all over again from the figure of a woman. Long dark hair, a hell of a figure, and a gait of confidence. A _slow_ and steady gait that held little time to falter.

(In the back of his mind the thought that this is the only other person rand loud and clear. A larger part of his brain was tugging in frustration. She _was_ familiar. _He knew it!_ )

“You have to get out of here!” A bit of his own mind was telling him to be careful. Like this woman was another danger to be aware of, more than the creature after him. That couldn’t be true. “There is a MONSTER out for anyone that crosses it.” It didn’t matter that he was the only one it was chasing so far. It was evidence enough. His body moving with a mission to get to the newest person and keep her safe.

She didn’t pause in her gait. Still steadily moving forward.

(If you looked closer it looked like she was trying to _stop_ herself from moving anywhere. He was looking.)

“I’m telling you, you need to-“ Red eyes went wide. His arm frozen. The hand he used to grasp her elbow tingling as her body fizzed like television static. Breaking apart like a cloud.

Her body turned as if finally noticing him. Blue green eyes shining like jewels, looking as if they were holding in pain and still ready to order armies to fight to win a battle only they could see. Her beautiful face twisting in pain as she looked into his own red eyes. “Don’t disappear Cu.”

The name hit him like lightning.

It was _his_ name.

How could he forget his _own_ name?!

“Who are ye lass?” Cu – he had a name – had to know.

She never was able to say. Her whole body scrunched up in pain. Shaking as it seemed to dissolve into red and purple dust. Her own eyes radiating a red light behind them as she focused her all his way. “Get it out of me Cu!” An order if he ever heard one. And yet his last ditch to grab her yielded nothing. Her body vanishing like smoke.

( _She had answers to things he only just realized were wrong. She couldn’t be gone. She didn’t look like she ** **wanted**** to be gone_.)

“I’ll find you lass, and then nothing will stop me from getting you to explain all of this!”

****_SLAAAAM!_ ** **

Unfortunately, the creature Cu was desperately avoiding out of instinct had caught up with him. 

.....and they didn't stop.

The hazy image of its reptilian tail was one of the last things Cu saw before losing consciousness. His body not even reaching the apex of its flight before crashing down.


	2. A Plead to the Heavens

A voice pleaded in the dark.

The cry for help as desperate as it was enraged. 

_Betrayed_ even. 

Magic being corrupted in every second to silence the _wish_ to be free.

_~~Don't let me go.~~ Don't let me go. DoN't Let mE Go!_

It was so late in its plea. So close to being unheard. After all there was no life on the earth that felt the urge to assist the voice of a human. Nothing that heard that had the power, or ability, to help. Not when the earth itself was anticipating the result. As if waiting in the same anxious glee as a particular priest to the final outcome for answers.

No the earth smothered the voice to the place of origin.

_~~Let me be me.~~ Let me be me! LeT mE Be Me!_

The young maiden the voice belonged to seemed to sense no assistance were forthcoming. Not by the very man that had done so to her family before. It seemed both father and daughter were both truly mistaken in the end to the man's desires. Oh but she was underestimated as well. She was determined. She was clever. She could use this on the fly. No matter how much it was trying to control her. To overwrite her very self.

_**She needed to hold on!** _

There was one person she knew that would save her. 

Stop her from being devoured.

.....and she knew where to find him even dead.

She knew instinctively how to get this to work, but she ...

She couldn't continue the little details.

Not while trying to remain as herself.

Not while she was escaping having herself burned away at the very core while another attempted to take over and implode her very self apart to be born.

She could fight this for as long as she could, but her champion needed _time_ to help her. His very awakening from this a feeble pull and last ditch effort. Still, she believed. He saved her once. He saved her before she was caught once more trying to help her sister. The one that was not supposed to know her. She couldn't know her. That didn't mean she would let her be taken by the betrayer for anything.

And it burned. Burned. BURNED. BurNEd! The fire in the church would have felt pleasant compared to this.

But she could take it. 

She _would_!

And she would wait for him to make it work. He would save her again. He just needed help that she couldn't give right now. 

A call not to the earth, but to the heavens resounded. 

And it **answered**.

(In another life in a future not set in stone, there was a woman created by the moon. She fought and won. Laughed and cried. Loved and lost. Learned and lived. All in so little time. She had a friend that she saved and returned to her home even as it wanted nothing to devour her like the moon devoured all. The little grail of a woman didn't think to stop her own dissolution after her wish was granted, but the plea from someone so much like her friend?

She willed herself to reach out her hand and **respond**.)

Glittering light not unlike the summoning of a Servant shaped itself in front of her. The image of a woman in a white dress lingered, her doll like looks and glittering amber eyes a distraction, but she answered as she followed the uncorrupted path inside of the maiden who pleaded for help. 

_"I will help you Rin."_


	3. An Accord

It was dark.

_Why was it so dark..?_

It felt like his head was pounding and he hadn't had water in days. The effort to even open his eyes was more challenging the worst of trial by his Sishou.....

_He had a Teacher?_

_Who was that..?_

That's right he had a monster of a teacher. A demon of magic and battle. 

**W..k.. p!**

What.... there was ....

**Wa...up!**

He was-

_**WAKE UP!!** _

He was blinded by the light in front of him as he opened his eyes. The area around his was hazy aside from the glowing silhouette of a woman wearing a white dress. It took him he had no idea how long to realize the hair was a lot straighter for all it was similar in length before he could focus right at her face. The dim black purple background lighting her up a little more so his very sensitive eyes had to avert until he stopped seeing spots. This was definitely not the face of the woman from earlier.

"Good, you could hear me." The voice was soft and sounded like someone who should be singing instead of being here, wherever here was.

Even still... there was another matter to point out. "You're not her."

"No." Those gold lit eyes were solemn. "I am not."

"Where _is_ she then?" He had to know. He _knew_ she had answers. She knew him and he knew her. It was a physical need of a feeling. Even without her order to get him out of whatever it was .. well he would have gone to her side. There was no other damn choice for him. 

Her own eyes gleamed as she looked at him in askance. "You don't feel it at all do you?"

That didn't answer his question. "Not gonna lie lass, not a thing your saying makes a lick o' sense to me right about now." His own red eyes were starting to glare at the lack of answers. 

"She's A%#@1W$." The woman before him, the second oddest person in his entire life that he could recall completely told him. It was completely and utterly unhelpful.

"Lass, you didn't even tell me where she was. You just made odd noises. Inhuman noises at that." And of course it only looked like _she_ was the one figuring some particular puzzle out. His words making her understand for all _he_ was missing out on all of it. 

"I see. You have to tell me. Can you hear my name?" Her face was completely and utterly serious. She expected him to have issues hearing something as common as that.

"I think I can manage something like that." His own face speaking volumes on how much of a difficult job this part will be. ' _She thinks I would miss something so simple_?'

Clearly, he was missing something more than all of his memories for her to wonder at the loss of something so basic. The fact that she only looked calm wit her ridiculous request made him want to hit something. Preferably. the creature that hit him earlier if he had the luck to make requests. 

"Tell me it, lass; tell me it and see just how much a more difficult you are making this all out to be."

"%25@4#-^34!@6&*$3." The words coming out of her mouth were just as incomprehensible as when she tried to tell him about the other woman. The one that he _needed_ to see, needed to seek answers from. "So you can't hear it, my name that is." She looked disappointed too for all she didn't have much expression shown on her face, but he was well acquainted with reading a person's body language. Something that was so much expressive really didn't even need the easy tell of how transparent her eyes were in showing almost every emotion from them.

"If I can't hear it. Tell me why I can't. Fuck, give me something I can call you to go along with it." He was starting to see he either was not a patient man, or one of action. The need to do something rising in him the more confused he feels. 

"You can call me your navigational guide. That's what people use when they get lost, right? I don't care if you want to call me anything else related to it. I'll lead you to jut what you need to do. That is if you are willing to follow my directions." She looked like she had no other reference on how to go about that, but proud to have come up with an alternative. 

"I'll just call you Guide then." He was sure as hell not calling her Navigation, or Navi, for short, for some reason that name just made him want to punch something. "Now what exactly are you guiding me to?"

"You can't hear me when I explain things. This means that you were pulled apart in here to be devoured, she stopped that just in time." Guide was completely serious about his rather disturbing situation. His own mind going back to the brunette with the beautiful eyes when the term 'her' came about. "I hope you don't mind danger and the idea that you will be the one devouring now. You need to defeat constructs in here to regain your power, possibly anything else they might have taken. And when you can hear all of my words, we are heading straight for her. We won't stop until #4% is saved, Do you think you can handle an endless fight until the end?"

The blood rushing through his head, the tension in his shoulders relaxed, and the bubbling in his gut traveled through his body. "I think there is no way I would turn you down for that." His own face growing a grin that would have disturbed anyone else with the blood lust seeping from it. From him. "You never did tell me how you could do this to help me, or even if that's all you're going to do."

He may have lost part of his mind... possibly literally but he was not going to just follow her words blindly. He may not have a choice in that as he wanted to, but he was not going to be the idiot that didn't ask when she could very well hold her own in some way. "Tell me what you need me for when you seem to be handling this all too well."

"I can't be here completely without making #4% needing to focus. I will be able to heal you and boost you... as well as shield you from the taint of this place. I vow to guide you until we make it to the end one way or another. The best outcome is filled with fighting more monsters like the one that hurt you earlier. I will lead you to more as fast as we can to stop the end. You'll be pushed to the limit and even court death. can you handle this?" Guide might be solemn but she wanted him to want to save the other just as much as his own heart was pleading with him. 

"I agree. There is no reason to trust a stranger to help another stranger, but like hell that will stop me. You tell me that this thing devoured me to the point that listening to the truth is literally hurtful to hear. I say we need to take care of some thieves and save the lass, Guide." He was finally on his feet, ready to go.

He made his choice.

It might be hard.

It might kill him.

It might even be worse than being devoured.

Thing was he makes his own choices and never looks back. He was not a man that cared for regret he knew that much. His hand reached over to shake his Guide's hand. "But seriously, we are changing your name as soon as I can hear it. You have yourself a deal."

Hands clasp his own and a thread of power sunk into him. "Temporary contract complete. I won't think of taking you away from her Cu Chulainn."

Cu barked out a laugh in agreement as his other hand twirled the spear he was able to summon. "Come on, we'll make sure there is no end in sight for us. Now tell me which way to go."

An actual smile reached Guide's eyes, "Then go straight. You wanted payback right."


	4. The First of Many

Cu, who now realized he had a full name of Cu Chulainn, followed Guide's orders to move straight ahead. The lingering taste of feeling more complete with a full name. A name that both the only people he could genuinely remember talking to him at all now in the two mystery women in a place he was starting to realize was not right. That the fact that his not realizing something so simple and only felt more solid and aware until after he heard them speak - the actual uttering of the name Cu having lit something in him to the point he could tell he had to have been _dying_ before - meant that Guide telling him he was being devoured before was not a lie.

He may not realize all of whole was, his past, the way this spear appeared in his hands, the absolute awareness of his body, and why that woman who had the answers needed him as much as he desired to know her, but that didn't matter. His instincts were something he trusted implicitly. It told him that he was making the right choice. And even if he wasn't, but now it was something to do. 

"Take a right here." Guide whispered not too far from him. She was keeping her word on keeping that taint from him. He could all but feel her mana - a substance that he recalled more and more about as they least themselves to the monster's doom - literally repelling an ooze that felt like a viscous mud that could sink a man like an imitation of a marsh after a flood sunk itself into the land. Cu felt pissed off as much as he was disgusted by it at every drip. This was what was melting him into it like a river into the sea. Only, definitely not as pretty an image.

"Stop." Her voice whispered again. The two of them close to what appeared to be a parking lot. "It's here."

"I see it." Cu couldn't miss the creature that once before would have been right on him at this distance. Again, the phantom of a woman was keeping he word. It wasn't going to give him all his trust to his ally, but it was a start. 

"Can you fight it now?" Her words lit a fire in him. "Can Are you willing to risk it all?"

He supposed it fair to ask if he was thinking second thoughts, a person with a weaker will might have done just that. Only that was never him. "Guide, just keep your end of the deal. It won't be the one walking away this time."

"Right." The approval just leaked from that one word. The serious in her tone coming out in her next words. "The base of the spine and the eyes are it's weak points. Remember to watch out for the tail and the tentacles. The last ones are venomous."

"I know all about the damn tail." Cu twirled the weight of the lance in his hands as he let his blood pump up. "The stingers are new. They won't touch me."

"No.. they won't." The glow shined from Cu's body just once, making him feel like he was invincible.

Like he could do anything.

So this was a boost he supposed she meant.

"Not at all." Cu was agreeing as he sprinted toward his opponent. This time himself on the offensive. 

His body was like lightning as he ran. The spear stabbing right in the left eye before the beast knew what was upon it. It's own tentacles whipping out to whip the lance out of it's face was parried as the weapon was pulled out with a squelch and knocking the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth tentacle from hitting him as he dodged to the left in the new blind spot to avoid the bite from the crocodilian like maw. 

The twist of a momentum on his own with the weight of the lance allowing him to pivot on the spot before the monster could recover and slam his spear home into the other eye.

_**Roooooaaaarrrrr!!!!** _

The sound of the roar at point blank could have made him deaf before as his vision whitened out with pain. The wild thrashing of the large predator would have smashed him in one of its flails and the hooves would have stomped him into a pulp in the ground, like the popping of grapes into wine. 

A cooling sensation as his body lit green reminded Cu of his partner and ally doing her part. The adrenalin slammed itself in with the hot blood pumping in Cu's body as his already fast reflexes moved into double time. This time had the creature had vision, a replica of after images were left in behind him as he raced and weaved in between the appendages and the spiked tentacles to use the spear as a pole vault to flip himself above it and then reorient himself to slam spear first into the base of the spine in less than a minute. 

_**Kreeetchhh!** _

The monster resounded in a death wail as the thrashing of its body grew worse, yet more easily avoided. Cu easily knocking the struggles back as he held firm. Twisting the tip of the lance deeper into the wound.

_**Roaaaaar!** _

The roar was so much weaker this time as the beast flopped to the side. Cu slammed his boot into the throat of the beast. Not willing to let his guard down until it breathed its last breath. The lancer unwilling to make the mistake his opponent did in leaving him alive to strike back. 

The dissolving of the creature taking him by surprise. The red turning into that mud Cu saw previously. "What the-?!"

"Relax." His ally spoke closer to him now that the physical fight was over. Her own hand bracing herself on him just before the blood colored mud slammed itself into him. _Burning him!_

"You ask I relax in _this_?" Cu bit out in a hiss of pain. The only sound coming out no matter how much he saw spots, unwilling to pass out gain due to this thing.

"Yes." Her voice was just as calm as it was before. Confident and busy with her own battle. The red of the mud turning into a gold color as the red and muddy texture filtered itself off him as the gold remained. Her own stance was as strong as his own with the lance as she waited until all the taint disappeared. Only then did the gold not liquid sink into his body in a rush of cooling fire that just made Cu feel _more_.

It could have taken minutes.

It could have taken hours.

But Cu came to himself looking up from a hunched over position with the lance the only thing holding him up as his right arm lung to it, in front of Guide looking as if kneeling to swear fealty. Her eyes were calm in a way that just allowed him to breath in and out. The confidence he would be alright a grounding thing.

"This is only the beginning. Do you feel it as I do?" She didn't move to touch him. 

"Aye." The rush of what could only be power was there. His body felt more settled and into himself. He could remember - REMEMBER! - the name of his weapon once more. Gáe Bulg as trusty a weapon as always even if he could not at the moment unlock it's full potential he now _knew_ was there. 

.....it proved Guide's point. She was not lying about any of it. Not yet. He would see in the end. Right now though, she was given his loyalty as a true partner until he could reach that woman. After all their plans aligned for now and would work in favor of the one he felt all his loyalty gone toward.

The woman he **_knew_ **was special to him. 

Even if not _how_.

"We have at least six more to go to save her." It was almost like she was reading his mind.

" _Bring them on._ "


End file.
